Journal of the American College of Nutrition
-
Vitamin D insufficiency poses a problem in many parts of the world, the elderly being an especially vulnerable group. This insufficiency results from an inadequate amount of sunshine and a low dietary intake of vitamin D. Typically, insufficiency is accompanied with high intact parathyroid hormone, (S-iPTH) concentrations. ⋯ A clear dose response was noted in S-25-OHD to different doses of vitamin D3. The recommended dietary intake of 15 microg is adequate to maintain the S-25-OHD concentration around 40-55 nmol/L during winter, but if the optimal S-25-OHD is higher than that even higher vitamin D intakes are needed. Interestingly, subjects with lower vitamin D status at baseline responded more efficiently to supplementation than those with more adequate status.
-
Dietary guidelines have broad implications for the health of individuals and populations. Increasingly, government agencies and medical organization that issue guidelines have pursued evidence-based approaches. These approaches emphasize a comprehensive, critical, and explicit examination of the scientific evidence that the proposed dietary practice will improve health. ⋯ Dietary guidelines should also consider untoward effects, potential harms, and economic implications to society, the food industry, and others. A hallmark of evidence-based guidelines is making explicit the strength of recommendations and the quality of the evidence on which they are based. Grading systems are commonly used to rate the quality of the supporting evidence.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Acute effect of black and green tea on aortic stiffness and wave reflections.
While most studies have shown an inverse relation between tea consumption and cardiovascular risk, other studies have shown opposite results. Aortic stiffness and wave reflections are markers of cardiovascular disease and prognosticators of cardiovascular risk. ⋯ Both black and green tea increases acutely wave reflections and only black tea increases aortic stiffness. Tea flavonoids may play a role in the attenuation of the effects of caffeine contained in tea.
-
For much of the past 40 years, the public has been warned away from eggs because of a concern over coronary heart disease risk. This concern is based on three observations: 1. eggs are a rich source of dietary cholesterol; 2. when fed experimentally, dietary cholesterol increases serum cholesterol and; 3. high serum cholesterol predicts the onset of coronary heart disease. However, data from free-living populations show that egg consumption is not associated with higher cholesterol levels. ⋯ Within the nutritional community there is a growing appreciation that health derives from an overall pattern of diet rather than from the avoidance of particular foods, and there has been a shift in the tone in recent dietary recommendations away from "avoidance" messages to ones that promote healthy eating patterns. The most recent American Heart Association guidelines no longer include a recommendation to limit egg consumption, but recommend the adoption of eating practices associated with good health. Based on the epidemiologic evidence, there is no reason to think that such a healthy eating pattern could not include eggs.
-
To evaluate the diet quality of free-living men, women, and children choosing peanuts and peanut products. ⋯ These results demonstrate improved diet quality of peanut users, indicated by the higher intake of the micronutrients vitamin A, vitamin E, folate, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron and dietary fiber, and by the lower intake of saturated fat and cholesterol. Despite a higher energy intake over a two-day period, peanut consumption was not associated with a higher BMI.